ON THE ROAD AGAIN: If Cosmos win, they will play Open Cup 3rd round at Memphis or Red Bulls U-23s May 29

Regardless how they fare in the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the Cosmos will find themselves on the road again.

If they defeat Hartford Athletic (USL Championship) in Hartford, Con.. Tuesday night, the Cosmos will play the winner of the Memphis 901 FC-Red Bulls Under-23 match Wednesday, May 29.

If Memphis (USL Championship) wins, the Cosmos will play at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex in Memphis, Tenn. at 8 p.m. ET.

If the Red Bull’s U-23 prevail, they will play at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J. at 7:30 p.m.

The third round will match the 22 winners that advance from this week’s second round action, contested by professional clubs from the Division II USL Championship (USLC) and First Round survivors from the new Division III USL League One (USLL1), Open Division local qualifying teams and Open Division national league sides from the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and USL League Two (USLL2). All U.S. Open Cup games can be seen live on ESPN+.

A random selection process among those teams who applied determined the hosts. Clubs with a venue meeting minimum tournament requirements were given priority. To determine potential Third Round matchups, pairs of second round games were bracketed together geographically. Second Round games that did not have a logical geographic match were pooled and drawn randomly to determine the Third Round possibilities for these sides.

The third round winners will face Division I Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs in the Fourth Round on June 11 & 12. The Fourth Round Draw to determine the exact matchups will be held May 30.

The first round of the 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup took place May 7-8, with four of six Division III clubs advancing to this week’s second round, along with five of eight local qualifiers, four of 14 NPSL teams and six of 10 sides from USL League Two.

The 2019 U.S. Open Cup winner will earn $300,000 in prize money, a berth in the 2020 Concacaf Champions League and have its name engraved on the Dewar Challenge Trophy – one of the oldest nationally-contested trophies in American team sports – now on permanent display at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas. The runner-up will earn $100,000, while the team that advances the furthest from each lower division will take home a $25,000 cash prize.

Fourth Round Draw – May 30Fourth Round – June 11-12*Round of 16 Draw – June 13Round of 16 – June 19* (also June 18-23 if home team chooses and visiting team has at least three non-game days on each side of chosen date, with any overlap of U.S. MNT Gold Cup games on June 18 and June 22 disallowed)Quarterfinals – July 10*Semifinals – August 7*Final – August 27 or 28

About The Author

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered eight World Cups, seven Olympics and all 21 MLS Cups. He writes about New York City FC, New York Cosmos and the U.S. national team for Newsday and pens a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has two more in the works, including one about the Rochester Lancers.